Microsoft today announced the next generation of its Office suite: Microsoft Office 2013, the desktop version, and Office 365, a subscription-based version of the same product that comes with more frequent updates and tight integration with SkyDrive, Microsoft's cloud service for document storage.

The suite includes new versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, and a few other applications, all of which have been redesigned and, thankfully, look much smarter.

The biggest changes implemented in Office 2013 are that it integrates with SkyDrive and works across a multitude of devices. The new Office works on PCs and tablets running Windows 8, as well as Windows Phones. Microsoft has not yet announced when the software will be available for purchase, nor what it will cost. A Mac version will be available at launch as well, according to company representatives.

PCMag received an early preview copy of Office 365, running on a Samsung Series 7 Slate with the Windows 8 operating system to get a feel for the new apps.

Office 2013 First Impressions

Fewer color gradations and more right angles (rather than beveled edges) in menu bars also contribute to the modernized look. Outlook looks so drastically different, you might mistake it for Web mail.

Setting up the preview copy of Microsoft Office 365 (again, that's the name of the subscription-based service, while Office 2013 is the locally installed desktop version) requires signing into a Windows Live account, which authenticates the connection between the apps and your SkyDrive account.

SkyDrive is Microsoft's own cloud storage solution, similar in many ways to Google Docs (which is in the process of being expanded and rebranded as Google Drive). With SkyDrive, you can upload documents to your Web account so that you have access to them from any Internet-connected device. And like Google Docs, SkyDrive has Web versions of some common apps, like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. So if you're on a computer that doesn't have Microsoft Word installed, you can still read and edit your Word documents—provided you've saved them to SkyDrive—as well as create new Word docs.

The 2013 version of Microsoft Office integrates much more tightly with SkyDrive. SkyDrive becomes the default location for saving new files, though you always have the opportunity to override the suggestion and save your files where ever you want. The option to save files locally rather than to SkyDrive is the kind of thing that some Windows users probably just assumed would be the case, but it's quite different than what Apple users have grown to expect. For example, if you use Apple's office apps, such as Pages or Numbers, to create a new document on an iPad, you never once have the ability to choose where to save the file. Apple automatically saves it to your Apple iCloud account (the nearest equivalent of Microsoft's SkyDrive). I was pleasantly surprised to be able to save files wherever I wanted on the Samsung Series 7 Slate tablet running Windows 8. Mac users working on a laptop or desktop have better ability to save files locally, even with the next Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, though integration with iCloud is still tight there.

For each app, you can customize a subtle graphic design that decorates the upper right corner of the screen—I liked "straws" and "tree rings"—to give your apps a hint of personalization.

As with any long-standing, standard-issue business software, Microsoft Office cannot change too radically from one version to the next. People rely on these apps for business, and too much change can throw off their ability to get work done. Remember the wrath longtime Office users unleashed when Microsoft forced The Ribbon on them?  It's critical that Microsoft roll out new features, functionality, and other changes to Office carefully and strategically. With Office 2013 and Office 365, the additions are few but noteworthy, which was the right balance for Microsoft to strike in this release. Here are a few of my favorite new features.

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